Minimum Wage Hikes Force Walmart To Raise Pay At More Than 1,400 Stores

By Nathan Layne

CHICAGO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Minimum wage increases across the United States will prompt Wal-Mart Stores Inc to adjust base salaries at 1,434 stores, impacting about a third of its U.S. locations, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

The memo, which was sent to store managers earlier this month, offers insight into the impact of minimum wage hikes in 21 states due to come into effect on or around Jan. 1, 2015.

These are adjustments that Wal-Mart and other employers have to make each year, but growing attention to the issue has expanded the scope of the change. Thirteen U.S. states lifted the minimum wage in 2014, up from 10 in 2013 and 8 in 2012.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company was making the changes to "ensure our stores in the 21 states comply with the law."

For Wal-Mart, the biggest private employer in the United States with 1.3 million workers, minimum wage legislation is not a small thing. Its operating model is built on keeping costs under close control as it attracts consumers with low prices and operates on tight margins.

In recent years, it has been struggling to grow sales after many lower-income Americans lost jobs or income in the financial crisis.

The Wal-Mart memo shows that there will be changes to its pay structure, including a narrowing of the gap in the minimum premium paid to those in higher skilled positions, such as deli associates and department supervisors, over lower grade jobs.

Wal-Mart will also combine its lowest three pay grades, which include cashiers, cart pushers and maintenance, into one base rate.

The changes appear in part to be an effort to offset the anticipated upswing in labor costs, according to a manager who was implementing the changes at his store.

"Essentially that wage compression at the upper level of the hourly associate is going to help absorb that cost of the wage increase at the lower level," said the manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


MORE CHANGE TO COME?

Wal-Mart's critics - including a group of its workers backed by labor unions - say the retailer pays its hourly workers too little, forcing some to seek government assistance that effectively provides the company with an indirect taxpayer subsidy. Labor groups have been calling for Wal-Mart, other retailers and fast-food chains to pay at least $15 an hour.

Wal-Mart has indicated it may make more changes to its compensation structure in 2015. Chief Executive Doug McMillon recently said the company would improve opportunities for workers, including getting the roughly 6,000 people who make the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour at its stores off that rate.

"In the world there is a debate over inequity, and sometimes we get caught up in that," he told TV presenter Charlie Rose in an interview this month. McMillon said he would take steps to ensure the company is "a meritocracy, an opportunity for people to do more."

The state minimum wage changes range from a 17 percent increase in South Dakota to $8.50 to a modest rise of 2 percent to $8.05 in Arizona. They will also impact many of Wal-Mart's big retail rivals, such as Target Corp, and fast-food chains like McDonald's Corp.

A Target spokeswoman said she could not provide details on how many employees might be impacted by the changes on Jan. 1. McDonald's could not be immediately reached for comment.

Wal-Mart estimates its average full-time hourly wage is $12.92, and says that it pays competitive wages and offers its employees ample opportunity for advancement.

Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough said it is tough to estimate the cost impact of the minimum wage changes without knowing the number of Wal-Mart employees affected. While many employees might start out at the minimum rate, they advance to higher pay rates over time, he noted.

Wal-Mart said last month that investment in wages and higher health care costs drove a 3.5 percent increase in operating expenses in its most recent quarter. Wal-Mart is unlikely to cut staff or reduce hours to keep those costs in check, given that it has made a renewed push to improve service in its stores, Yarbrough said. (Reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Martin Howell)

Children Who Eat More Fast Food Show Less Academic Improvement, Study Shows

Fast food has long been linked to obesity, but a new study suggests that it may also affect children's educational achievement.

The study, led by Kelly M. Purtell at Ohio State University, tracked students between fifth and eighth grade, when students are assessed in reading, math and science. Researchers used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, a national survey covering about 12,000 students. In fifth grade, the students were asked how much fast food they had eaten in the past week (the survey was not necessarily given the same week as the academic assessment). Researchers then compared the frequency of fast food eaten to the academic achievement gains between fifth and eighth grade.

Researchers found that students who ate more fast food overall had slower growth in academic achievement. Students who reported eating fast food once a day had slower growth in math, reading and science than students who ate no fast food. The more fast food a student reported eating, the lower their rate of academic improvement.

"High levels of fast food consumption were predictive of lower growth in all three academic subjects," Purtell told The Huffington Post.

The decreases were most pronounced in math. If students reported eating any fast food, their assessments reflected lower gains in math achievement. Meanwhile, lower science gains were related to eating fast food four to six times a week or daily. Improvement in reading was only affected with daily fast food consumption.

According to the report, less than 30 percent of participants had no fast food at all in the week before being asked. About half of participants had eaten fast food one to three times that week. Ten percent had eaten it four to six times, and the remaining 10 percent ate fast food every day.

"These findings indicate that fast food consumption is linked with deleterious developmental outcomes in children beyond obesity," the study says. However, the researchers do not suggest eliminating fast food altogether. Instead, they suggest that reducing the frequency of consumption is a more critical issue.

Purtell said that, based on the results, it is "not as problematic if a family occasionally goes to a fast food restaurant, as opposed to a family that makes it a regular part of their routine."

The researchers theorize that children who eat fast food frequently are not getting the proper nutrients they need to develop optimally. Fast food does not have sufficient iron and has too much fat and added sugar. The study accounted for other possible contributing factors, such as parent education, family income, food insecurity, and TV-watching to show that fast food itself had a correlation to academic scores.

The researchers suggested several ways to counter the negative effects of fast food. First, they noted that parents often give children fast food because it is easy. If food preparation were less stressful, they say, fast food consumption would decrease. They suggest imposing taxes on fast food as a disincentive for those who might resort to fast food for its low prices.

"Fast food is really pervasive right now, and there are a lot of reasons why kids eat it and why families use it," Purtell said. Because of this, Purtell said, "we have to think broadly about lots of different ways to make families not be reliant on fast food."

Fast food is often highly present and available to children. There are many fast food restaurants near -- and sometimes in -- schools, and there is sometimes advertising for fast food in or around schools. If this were not the case, the researchers posit, students might eat fast food less frequently.

U.S. Economy Grows At Fastest Rate Since 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a sizzling 5 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the fastest in more than a decade, boosted by strength in consumer spending and business investment.

The Commerce Department on Tuesday sharply revised up its estimate of third-quarter growth from a previous figure of 3.9 percent. Much of the strength came from consumer spending on health care and business spending on structures and computer software.

It was the fastest quarterly growth since the summer of 2003. It followed a 4.6 percent annual growth rate in the April-June quarter.

Most economists think growth is slowing to an annual rate of around 2.5 percent in the current October-December quarter. They foresee growth around 3 percent in 2015.

That would be the strongest figure since the economy expanded 3.3 percent in 2005, two years before the Great Recession began.

The 2007-2009 downturn, the worst since the 1930s, cost millions of people their jobs. Since then, the economy has struggled to regain full health. Even after the recession ended in June 2009, the economy has turned in mediocre growth rates averaging 2.2 percent annually.

But many analysts think growth is finally set to accelerate as more businesses have grown confident about hiring. The country is on track to have its healthiest year for job growth since 1999. In November, employers added 321,000 jobs, the biggest one-month increase in three years.

With more people working and having money to spend, solid gains are expected in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

Madoff Victims' Payout Nears $7.2 Billion, Trustee Says

By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Victims of Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme will get a fresh $322 million payout if a U.S. judge approves the request by the trustee liquidating the convicted fraudster's firm, bringing the recovery total to more than $7 billion.

The trustee, Irving Picard, said on Monday he would seek permission from a U.S. bankruptcy judge in New York to begin the fifth interim distribution of payments, which would average $299,900 and range from just under $400 to more than $60 million.

The announcement came five weeks after Picard said he had reached three settlements with various defendants, totaling more than $642 million.

All told, Picard has recouped about $10.5 billion, roughly 60 percent of the $17.5 billion of principal he estimated was lost by Madoff customers in the Ponzi scheme, which was revealed in December 2008.

Picard has allowed 2,547 claims related to 2,213 accounts that victims held at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Once the fifth interim distribution is complete, he said, 1,154 accounts will be fully satisfied.

A court hearing to consider approving the payout has been scheduled for Jan. 15.

Madoff, 76, is serving a 150-year prison term after pleading guilty in March 2009.

Five former Madoff employees were sentenced to prison terms of two to 10 years earlier this month, following their conviction in March of fraud and other charges for helping Madoff conceal his fraud for decades.

Fifteen people, including Madoff himself, have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty in connection with the Ponzi scheme. (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Richard Chang)

Elon Musk's Hyperloop Could Be Just 10 Years Away

Hyperloop, the ultra-fast tube transport dreamed up by SpaceX founder and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, could be ready for passengers in as few as 10 years.

In a 76-page report released on Dropbox on Thursday, a new startup called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies laid out plans for building Musk's futuristic transportation system, which could cut travel time between Los Angeles and San Francisco down to 35 minutes. The trip takes up to 12 hours by Amtrak train, and more than six hours by car.

The system would carry passengers in pods moving as fast as 800 miles per hour, according to the white paper. The plan laid out by Musk -- who has no involvement in the project, and did not help with the paper -- has broadened beyond the two California metropoles. Hyperloop Transportation has drawn up maps with lines connecting every major U.S. city.

Housed within a newly-launched crowd-funding company called JumpStartFund, the startup offered wildly varying estimates for the cost of the project -- anywhere between $7 billion and $19 billion.

Hyperloop CEO Dirk Ahlborn told The Huffington Post that the wide potential price range is due to the unpredictability of prices for materials and other expenses over the next decade. He said wealthy donors and investors are already approaching JumpStartFund, of which he is also chief executive, about pledging money.

He admitted his 10-year timeline might be ambitious. It does not account for the political opposition and regulatory hurdles that would undoubtedly dog a new form of public transportation being built up the coastline of the country’s most populous state.

“We’re working very close with the public and being very transparent,” said Ahlborn, a German-born entrepreneur based in Los Angeles.

If he finds it too difficult to build the inaugural Hyperloop in California, he may choose to build it in another country.

“For us, it’s mostly about building the Hyperloop,” he said. “We want to see it in the U.S., but if it makes more sense to do that somewhere else, then so be it. The goal is to build it.”

The other goal is to keep it cheap. While his plan envisions making luxury pods available, Ahlborn said the estimated ticket price for economy-class seats would be about $20 to $30. But he said rides would ideally be free -- perhaps supported by ads, to take advantage of time spent with a captive audience of travelers.

As with air travel, Hyperloop plans to have luxury and economy class pods.

“You have the passenger for 30 to 40 minutes,” Ahlborn said. “This is not a venture for good, it’s a commercial company, so it has to make business sense. But we’ll see.”

In the meantime, recent publicity about the Hyperloop has drummed up interest. His team of about 100 engineers, who are paid largely through stock options, seems set to expand.

“I would say that, on average, we’re receiving 10 to 20 new applications per hour,” he said with a laugh.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of time it takes to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco by train.

RadioShack Planning More Store Closures, Layoffs To Avoid Collapse

RadioShack announced a last-ditch attempt to avoid bankruptcy on Thursday morning, but industry observers think the iconic electronics seller's plan may be too little, too late.

The plan involves closing hundreds of stores, cutting budgets and laying off retail workers and employees in corporate headquarters, the company said in an announcement. RadioShack reported a loss of $161 million for the three-month period that ended November 1. That's 18 percent more than the $136 million loss it suffered over the same period last year.

The company hopes to save more than $400 million with the slash-and-burn tactics. More than a quarter of the planned cuts, $105 million, are being made to the marketing budget -- the very same one that just brought us a holiday commercial featuring 'Weird Al' Yankovic.

RadioShack has struggled to stay relevant and keep its stores open, despite its archaic name. The 93-year-old company, which operates roughly 4,000 stores, has closed 175 locations so far this year, and wants to shut down nearly 1,000 more.

"The majority of the savings are in our control and are already in process," chief executive Joe Magnacca said on a conference call with analysts on Thursday.

Magnacca did not specify the number of planned layoffs, but said 50 percent of the retailer's "field managers" will be cut, saving $17 million annually. Through staff cuts at the corporate level, Magnacca expects to save an additional $18 million.

RadioShack has around 25,000 employees in total.

But many think these efforts will be for naught.

"RadioShack is a corpse being propped for display on malls across America this holiday season," Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, told The Huffington Post. "Cost cuts won't change one key, fundamental thing: The stores are too small to properly showcase the tech of today."

Take Best Buy, said Sozzi, with its GoPro shops and rows of 4K TVs. Soon, it'll carry the Apple Watch too. All RadioShack has going for it is its selection of Beats headphones, he said, but those are also available at places like Walmart and Target, where customers can pick up their groceries for the week at the same time.

"RadioShack will be officially entering the retail grave site in 2015," Sozzi predicted. "Time is up."

The tech retailer did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

RadioShack has taken a number of measures to reverse its downward slide, including bringing Magnacca on board from drugstore chain Walgreen Co. two years ago. Cost-cutting and store closures have also been ongoing since then.

The chain has changed the mix of merchandise on offer, touting well-known brands like Beats by Dr. Dre and Sol Republic headphones, along with its own branded products.

Magnacca is also trying to regain the attention of do-it-yourself tinkerers, the loyal customers who flocked to RadioShack in its heyday as a destination for electronic parts. That customer base was largely abandoned in 2009, when the store first began attempting to modernize with glitzy mobile gadgets.

"[Accountability] didn't happen for a long time at RadioShack," Magnacca told HuffPost last year. "The customer was an afterthought."

RadioShack's remodeled stores are more interactive and prominently feature phones, headphones and speakers.

Regardless of the retailer's long-term viability, it needs cash right now to survive. Thus far, RadioShack has managed to avoid bankruptcy by raising enough money from investors and lenders to stay afloat. But over the past few months, a number of red flags have been raised that suggest the company's dire need for funds.

In a plan announced in March, RadioShack tried to get permission to shut down 1,100 underperforming stores, but was blocked by creditors. It's only allowed by lenders to shutter 200 stores a year for the next three years. Currently, the company is negotiating with the lenders for permission to close more stores, in accordance with the most recent cost-saving proposal.

By late June, shares had dipped below $1, the minimum requirement for being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Though occasional spikes have put the stock above that threshold a few times since then, the price has remained under $1 since early November. It dipped 10 percent to a low of 50 cents on Thursday morning after RadioShack announced its plan.

The retailer finally admitted in September that it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and reiterated that warning in today's announcement. Standard & Poor's downgraded RadioShack's corporate credit rating into "junk" territory in September, saying it expected the company to go bankrupt within six months. Shortly after, RadioShack appointed a bankruptcy expert as its interim chief financial officer.

In December, lenders said RadioShack had defaulted on $250 million in loans -- a claim the retailer dismissed as false.

And on Wednesday, the New York Post reported that RadioShack is locked in "hardball negotiations" with cellular carriers. With cash running low, the company wants AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless to revise their cellular deals, or RadioShack may go bankrupt, according to the report.

Detroit To Officially Exit Historic Bankruptcy

By Serena Maria Daniels

DETROIT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Detroit will officially exit the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy later on Wednesday, officials said, allowing Michigan's largest city to start a new chapter with a lighter debt load.

The city, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2013, will shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations.

"We're going to start fresh tomorrow and do the best we can to deliver the kind of services people deserve," said Mayor Mike Duggan.

Once a symbol of U.S. industrial might, Detroit fell on hard times after decades of population loss, rampant debt and financial mismanagement left it struggling to provide basic services to residents.

Later on Wednesday, payments to city creditors will be triggered under a debt adjustment plan confirmed by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge last month.

Most of the settlements with major creditors, including Detroit's pension funds and bondholders, will be paid with a distribution of about $720 million of bonds. The city will also reissue $287 million of existing bonds and borrow about $275 million from Barclays Capital to finance its exit from bankruptcy.

Along with the debt, the exit plan relies heavily on the "Grand Bargain," where foundations, the state and the Detroit Institute of Art will contribute $816 million over time to ease pension cuts and protect city-owned art work from sale. The plan also aims to provide Detroit with $1.7 billion through June 30, 2023, to improve city services and infrastructure.

Wednesday also marks the end of Kevyn Orr's 21-month term as Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager. He told reporters that the city was wrapping up wire transfers, disbursements and other matters to end the historic bankruptcy.

"There may be some other administrative things the court may have to handle but the city will have emerged from bankruptcy," Orr said. "12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning the city will be out of bankruptcy. I will no longer be the emergency manager. I will be unemployed."

Orr's departure returns complete control of Detroit to Duggan and the nine-member city council. However, the city will have a nine-member, state-created oversight board in place to approve financial matters.

In confirming the bankruptcy plan, Judge Steven Rhodes raised questions about possible conflicts of interest from having Duggan and a city council member sit on the board.

"The city is running the city, with some financial oversight on budgetary matters," said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder about the financial review commission. "My goal is probably to have (the commission) be as least active as possible."

The Republican governor told Reuters in an interview that the commission will help ensure Detroit does not slip back into bankruptcy. He also ruled out direct financial aid to the city in the future.

"We're not really aiming to be there as a backup to the city in terms of financial resources," Snyder said. "We're there to be a supportive partner."

He added that many of the other 16 local governments and school districts under state oversight in Michigan are "transitioning out of their problems" without the aid of bankruptcy.

"People should not be aspiring to go into bankruptcy to solve your problems. It's tough process and it's a last resort."

Orr said court-ordered mediation on fees paid to consultants during the bankruptcy process was continuing on Wednesday. Outside lawyers and consultants charged the city more than $140 million, sparking protests from Duggan. Orr said some of the issues were "resolved last week."

With the exit, "all of the consultants are being phased out pretty quickly," Duggan said. (Writing and additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and Lisa Lambert in Washington; editing by Matthew Lewis)

Amazon To Experiment With 1-Hour Bike Messenger Delivery: WSJ

Dec 8 (Reuters) - E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc plans to experiment with bike messengers to offer deliveries in New York City within an hour, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

The superfast service, dubbed "Amazon Prime Now," attempts to replicate shopping in a physical store by delivering some items in an hour or two, the WSJ report said. (http://on.wsj.com/1qmehHu)

Amazon has been experimenting with three different courier services to pick the fastest and the most careful for its deliveries, the report cited the source as saying.

The bike messengers are paid around $15 an hour and work in eight hour shifts, the Journal reported.

Amazon will use its West 34th Street location as a base for the bike messengers. The company has built a lounge there with facilities including foosball, pool and airhockey tables, for messengers waiting between deliveries, the Journal added. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

Only Amazon Prime Babies Can Wear These New Diapers

Are you willing to wrap an Amazon-branded diaper around your baby’s bottom?

Amazon thinks so.

The world's largest online retailer announced Wednesday that it’s started selling its own line of diapers and baby wipes. They're the first products in a new line called Amazon Elements, which the company promises will give consumers an “unprecedented level of information” about their products. Although they’re not the cheapest diapers available, they are pretty inexpensive relative to others sold on Amazon.

But here’s the catch: You have to be a member of Amazon Prime to buy them.

That’s because Amazon really, really wants you to join Amazon Prime, the company’s $99-per-year loyalty program. Prime members shop more frequently on Amazon -- and spend significantly more money there -- than non-members.

Prime started out as a free shipping program in 2005, but it’s morphed into much more than that, especially in the past year. Apart from the free shipping, Prime members in the U.S. now get discounts on some Amazon products, free unlimited photo storage, a subscription to a streaming music library and access to an improving catalog of streaming movies and TV shows, including original programming like “Transparent."

In March, citing higher fuel and shipping costs, Amazon raised the price of Prime membership by 25 percent, from $79 to $99.

The diapers and wipes appear to be Amazon's way of catering to the growing transparency trend in consumer products. Amazon says that it will give consumers information like where and when its Elements products were made, as well as “why each ingredient was included, where the ingredients were sourced and much more,” according to the company's Wednesday press release. Each Elements package will come with a unique code that a customer can scan with their Amazon smartphone app to find this information.

The materials for Amazon’s diapers, according to the product page, come from Israel, Germany, North Carolina, Alabama and Wisconsin, among other places. In an email, Pia Arthur, an Amazon spokeswoman, said Amazon’s diapers are made by Irving Personal Care, a Canadian company, and the wipes are made in Indiana by Nice-Pak Products, Inc.

Transparency in household products seems to be a good business strategy right now. The Honest Company, which sells natural, eco-friendly baby products including diapers, raised $70 million earlier this year, giving the privately held company, co-founded by the actress Jessica Alba, a value of nearly $1 billion.

Parents of young kids need a lot of diapers and wipes and need them regularly, which means those products lend themselves well to recurring orders. If you sign up for recurring orders and order in bulk, Amazon's diapers range in price from 18 to 32 cents each, depending on size, and that includes shipping.

According to the market research firm IBISWorld, about $14.6 billion worth of diapers are sold in the U.S. every year, a figure that's expected to grow at 2.1 percent annually through 2019.

Amazon already sells a boatload of diapers, and not only through its main website. The retailer also owns Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com.

SaY GooDbYe tO dELiA*s

It's the end of the line for a '90s teen darling. Delia's is preparing to shut down.

Delia’s announced Friday that it is liquidating all of its merchandise and plans to soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It had been looking for a buyer after running low on cash, decimated by four straight years of declining sales.

A Delia's Catalog. (Photo: Delia's)

The store, which styles itself as dELiA*s and is best known for its once-popular catalog, had its heyday in the 1990s selling that decade’s flashy fashion items like maxi skirts, neon track jackets and baggy pants. Launched as a direct sales business in 1993, it was adored by teen girls as a place to buy all the cutesy items they wanted, and the brand prospered as it delivered on all the hot teen trends of the era.

But in the mid-2000s, fashion trends passed it by, and girls abandoned the store for edgier shops like American Apparel, PacSun and Hot Topic. Delia’s put itself on the auction block back in 2011, as fierce competition from newly popular stores like Forever 21 and H&M ate away at its sales. In 2013, Delia’s accumulated just $137 million in sales, down nearly 47 percent from its peak of $258 million in 2006.

A turnaround seemed possible last year, when hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson talked up Delia's potential under new chief executive Tracy Gardner, who came over from J. Crew and hoped to spark a renaissance of sorts.

Delia’s retained its upbeat style to the end, though without the vibrant, in-your-face neon color palette that defined the 90s. It sells items like sweaters with heart prints, flowery tops and graphic tees with “Whatever” emblazoned on their fronts.

But the company wasn't able to keep up with the times. As former Delia’s CEO Walter Killough told BuzzFeed as the chain was on its deathbed: “It looks like Delia’s is just another small company, in the teen space, that did not have the store and e-commerce productivity to absorb the revolutionary changes that are going on in the shopping patterns of the teen shopper.”

Delia's found its home in shopping malls, attracting girls to stores with its snazzy catalog. But over time, suburbia ditched malls to shop on the Internet. As of August, Delia’s had 95 stores left-- down from 115 in 2011. In February, Delia’s had 499 full-time and 1,190 part-time employees, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company “does not anticipate any value will remain from the bankruptcy estate” for shareholders. A representative for Delia’s did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

Walmart Pulls 'I Can't Breathe' Ad After Eric Garner Decision

Walmart pulled a TV ad Thursday morning after complaints that the commercial insensitively recalled the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold.

The ad, for a Walmart-branded cell phone plan powered by T-Mobile, shows a black man giving his daughter a cellphone. To thank him, the daughter affectionately wraps her arm around his neck and starts taking selfies while the dad mutters, "I can't breathe."

The ad seems pretty innocuous, but "I can't breathe" were Garner's last words after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold while arresting him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes in July. On Wednesday, a grand jury on Staten Island declined to indict Pantaleo, setting off a wave of protests across the country. "I can't breathe" has become a rallying cry for many of those demonstrations.

A viewer tweeted at Walmart after seeing the ad during NBC's "The Voice" Wednesday night.

@DarrellLondon @bpopken We can see how the ad could be viewed differently today than when it first aired. We’re recutting based on feedback.

— Walmart Newsroom (@WalmartNewsroom) December 4, 2014

Deisha Barnett, a Walmart spokeswoman, told The Huffington Post that the ad began airing over the summer, but she was unsure whether that was before or after Garner's death. The ad was in circulation until Thursday morning, when the company removed it in response to tweets complaining about the ad.

Hat tip: NBC News

Coke Is Going To Try And Sell You Milk

Soda sales are falling, so Coca-Cola is getting ready to sell us a new drink. You may have heard of it. It's called milk. It comes from cows.

Coke's new milk isn't just plain old white stuff, though. Called FairLife, the new drink is marketed as "premium" milk with 50 percent more protein, 30 percent more calcium, half the sugar of typical milk -- and a higher price tag.

“We’ll charge twice as much for it as the milk we're used to buying in a jug,” the president of Coca-Cola North America told analysts at a Morgan Stanley conference last week. “It's basically the premiumisation of milk," Coke's Sandy Douglas said, according to a transcript from the event.

Douglas compared the milk to Coke's high-end juice brand, Simply. If the new milk does as well as Simply, in a few years it will "rain money," he said.

So far, Fairlife is only sold in test markets. The soda giant plans to launch it nationally in the U.S. in 2015, according to a statement from a Coca-Cola spokeswoman. The enhanced milk is a joint venture between Coke and Select Milk Producers dairy co-op, a collective of large dairy producers.

The dairy industry needs this to work. American milk consumption is declining, along with soft drink sales, as Americans increasingly swap cereal and milk for breakfast bars and fast food breakfast sandwiches. Retail sales of milk dropped 3 percent in 2014 after falling 2 percent the year before, according to data from Euromonitor. Competition from non-dairy milk alternatives, protein drinks and ready-to-drink teas may make it difficult for the milk industry to reverse the trend.

Fairlife hits on a couple of food fads that may help it succeed. The drink offers more protein than traditional milk. And protein is having a moment, thanks largely to cross-fit enthusiasts and paleo dieters. Companies increasingly have been using claims of high protein to sell everything from jerky to cereal.

People also seem to love milk alternatives and are often willing to pay a little bit more for them. Soy milk and almond milk revenues are expected to grow by 7.1 percent annually over the next four years, to $1.4 billion, according to data from IBISWorld, a research firm.

Fairlife contains dairy, but the fact that “there is something special about the product” makes shoppers think of it a bit differently than “the basic private-label milk that people buy in supermarkets,” said John Sicher, the editor of Beverage Digest, an industry newsletter.

An ad for Fairlife.

Turning a staple drink into a premium beverage to justify a higher price isn't a new strategy. The alcohol industry does it with Grey Goose vodka, Patron tequila and Tanqueray gin.

Water is probably the best example. Once just something that you got from the tap or even, gasp, a well in the ground, water was a more than $11 billion industry in 2011, according to the International Bottled Water Association. In addition to fancy water like Fiji and Voss, there are now sommeliers and websites dedicated to helping shoppers find the most luxurious types of water. Coke is in the water business as well with Dasani, which contains filtered tap water and trace amounts of minerals.

For Coke, premium milk is part of a broader push to diversify as Americans tire of soda. Rival Pepsi, which owns Frito-Lay, has already done this. Coke's biggest competitor is pushing into dairy as well, with a yogurt brand sold in stores nationwide.

Earlier this year, Coke capitalized on the rising popularity of energy drinks by buying a 17 percent stake in Monster. Coke also will offer its brands in Keurig’s single-serve cold brew machines next year. Honest Tea is the first Coke brand Keurig users will be able to brew in single-serve form.

Injecting some new life into Coke’s business is paramount. The company reported a 14 percent drop in profit last quarter and announced a cost-cutting program aimed at reducing expenses by $3 billion a year by 2019.

The soda giant also reported a 1 percent decline in carbonated drink volume in North America and it’s “very unlikely” it will see much growth in the U.S. soda business in the future, said Howard Telford, a beverage analyst at Euromonitor International, a market research firm. Shoppers, increasingly aware of high levels of sugar in soda, are opting for other drinks.

Americans will drink way less soda over the next several years, according to this chart from IBISWorld.

Oil Prices Are Plunging. Here's Who Wins and Who Loses.

While Americans were stuffing their faces with poultry Thursday, global oil markets were in chaos. And the implications are far-reaching.

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